[While recovering I’m actively on the hunt for new and exciting recipes, considering that our last post has gathered a lot of interest, I thought I’d do best by bringing you more “mushrooms as a main ingredient.” I’ve tried everyone of these, and I found each simply delicious! CS]

Preheat oven to 400F/200C or heat gas or charcoal grill to medium high. Wash mushrooms, pull out stems, and cut into halves (or quarters if the mushrooms are large.) Put mushrooms into bowl and toss with 2 T olive oil, salt, and fresh ground black pepper. Cover a roasting pan with foil, then arrange mushrooms on the pan in a single layer. (Spread them out as much as you can. For cooking on a grill, I’d probably use heavy foil to make a “pan” so the flame doesn’t turn the bottom of the roasting pan black.)

Roast mushrooms 15 minutes. While mushrooms cook, finely chop fresh thyme, then mix with minced garlic, balsamic vinegar, and the tsp. of olive oil. (You could mix this right in the bowl you originally tossed the mushrooms with.)

After 15 minutes, drain off any liquid that has accumulated. (If you spread the mushrooms out well, the liquid will evaporate, but if yours are too crowded like mine, you’ll have a little liquid to pour off.) Then toss the hot mushrooms with they garlic-thyme mixture. Arrange back on roasting pan and cook about 10 minutes more. Serve hot, sprinkled with chopped fresh parsley if desired.

Delicious!!!!

Portobello mushrooms are inexpensive, full of flavor and meat like in taste. Here is a quick and easy recipe from allrecipes.com:

Clean mushrooms and remove stems, reserve for other use. Place caps on a plate with the gills up.

In a small bowl, combine the oil, onion, garlic and vinegar. Pour mixture evenly over the mushroom caps and let stand for 1 hour.

Grill over hot grill for 10 minutes. Serve immediately.

Recipe Yield: 3 servings

As a child, as a teenager, mushrooms were not exactly my idea of good food… As I grew older, my taste buds got more educated and started appreciating many ingredients I would never have touched in my early years. Mushroom based dishes not only are healthy, but mushrooms add a lot of flavor to almost anything they are cooked with. Enjoy, gentle reader, enjoy